Among Stone Soldiers
by Collision Yanma Senpai
Summary: AKA "At the Soldier's Call". A little girl, abandoned and unloved in a children's home in Domino City, seeks solace in the mysterious Duel Monsters card found at the scene of her parent's death. Story about my fav. card.
1. Death, Unexpected

A/N: Hello again!! I have been debating on writing this story for a long time, and I guess I finally got around to it.

It was suppossed to be a series really, I don't know why I've decided to write the ending first.... will that ruin it for you?

Hmmm... Sigh...

I had wanted to first give the full story of my character in orderto let you all become familiar with her so that this story wouldhave a greater impact, but in my head it all sounds pretty good right now, soI'm not even going to worry about it...

Well, there's not much I can do about it now, is there?

Ok, WARNINGS:

First of all, the first few chapters of this story... I plan to make them either background information or detailed descriptions of the setting, in order for the readers to get a better feel for the story and truly appreciate the harsh reality of her current, rather dispiriting surroundings. I just feel like this will set the mood more for my story, and that it is completly neccisary to do so in order to get the best effect...

So if you don't like it, _deal_ with it!

Also, this story is much, MUCH less of the upbeat stuff in most of my other stories.

There will be no funny authors notes, nohumor, and no visits from the Amep as well, I am sorry if you miss these things,

Thatis too bad.

It is, by far, probably one of the most depressing things I will ever write on here thus far, so please remember that while you read.

If this puts you off in any way, please leave now.

This is a Yu Gi Oh themed story, it just only shows up in later chapters, so don't write to me within the first few complaining that it's not, I will slay you mid-way in your quest for stupidity.

And an extra-special thank you to all of those who pursue this fanfic, love it or hate it, I greatly appreaciate your support.

I also do not own Yu Gi Oh, **back off!!**

And so we begin...

* * *

Do you remember that girl?

The one who always sat alone those sacred Tuesdays when all of the children were allowed to leave the school for a few blessed hours before once again being ushered into the gates of their premature hell?

Do you remember her?

Never part of the crowd, never anyone's friend...

Never anything...

Tell me know, you must remember?

No?

Well then, maybe you'd like to refresh your memory, no?

Memories of the only lonely girl...

No one remembers,

Because nobody knows...

But she was the only...

Lonely girl...

**

* * *

**

**BACKGROUND:**

Marlaine Garnensen was a lonely little girl.

At the age of three, her parents died in an inexplicable boating accident off the coast of some unnamed town just west of the Prime Meridian. After days of searching, navy police finally found the charred remnants of their mangled bodies, still flaming, floating upon the ashen debris on the waves. Oil from a sunken tanker poured profusely around the once happy couple, pooling like sticky, blackened blood... The only things they left behind were their young daughter, and an envelope that had mysteriously frozen to Marghritte Garnensen's hand. How it managed to freeze amongst the unrelenting flames of the oil spill was unknown, but investigators decided that some things were better left unasked...

And so Marlaine was shipped off to live with her detestable aunt, far, far away...

The aunt in question, a terrible, brooding woman, who was just as beastly and cruel as she was obnoxious, lived in a shabby little apartment on the outskirts of Domino City. She made Marlaine do all of the chores, and was quick to beat her at even the smallest mishap or mistake, whilst she herself meerly lazed about, or engaged in scanalous activities with strange men behind closed doors.

In June of Marlaine's second year with this ghastly woman, she was found dead, strangled with a bedsheet, on the puss-white bed of the main bedroom uptairs.

Unloved and unwanted by any other living relatives, Marlaine was sent to Mary Agustine's Home For Neglected Children, an orphanage inside the crowded encasement of the bustling town.

And so it was that the battle-scared and tear-stained orphan girl finally made her way to Domino City.

* * *

Please review.

Flames will only cause unwanted memories of the ghastly Garnensen death, so please do not send them.

The last thing this poor girl needs is more abuse and stress.

Thank you.

And thank you for reading,

CYS.


	2. Confines In Blue

Second chapter...

Second chapter from Hell...

Short, so review.

If you don't, you die,

_**End**_ **Of** _**Story.**_

Got it?

Good.

Any J.A.'s that wanna fight me on the rights to this anime, go ahead,

feel free to.

Just know,

that you too shall also die...

As I devour your soul...

Lovely, no?

I'm depressed...

You can freakin' deal with it.

Thanx.

... yeah...

DIE!

* * *

There are some people who say Mary Augustine's Home For Neglected Children is a blessing upon society...

After all, it got kids off the streets, out of trouble, and if they were lucky enough, into good homes, with caring parents to love and support them.

Most of them.

And they didn't really know...

No, none of them knew anything about it...

Nothing was said of the drafty rooms, so barren in their steel uniformity and faulty construction. Bare bulbs hung precariously from the ceiling, casting a dim translucent glow over the dead metal surfaces, cold metal walls.

The walls...

If anything was more detested by the children residing in the orphanage, it was the walls.

So cold, so unyielding, the only true barrier to the outside world and true happiness...

They were the reality of something that was keeping them all in,

the tangible manifestation of their damned existence...

Blue.

A sickly color, like the mold slowly devouring a decayed piece of old cheese...

That's what really made the place so horrid.

Even in the cold winter nights, even when the empty hallways rang with the desolate cries of some untold spirits, or shrieked like bitter winds in an abandoned mine shaft in the early morning... it died not bother them as much as knowing...

That the walls held the children in...

And they were afraid.

Well...

All but one...

* * *

A.N./ La la la...

YAY! I stole the shirt!

(Ask if you dare! BWUHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!)

Not depressed anymore!

'Cuz I love Bobby!

AND my new Valentine!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

(Neither as boyfriend material, FYI!)

Wait, isn't Bobby the one who keeps (literally) raining crunpled papers down on my head?

...And hitting me with soda bottles?

Shouldn't I hate him?

Jeesh...

Alright, well... ummm... what was I going to say here again?

OH YEAH!

REVIEW!

Please?

Thankie-you,

TTYL!

-CYS.


	3. Cold Smile Sunset

A/N: You people are curious, I like that...

But don't ask questions you know the answers to...

**Spirit Seer :** In answer to your question,

No,

this does not get any happier.

I am sorry.

And yes, it's suppossed to be like that.

(See bottom of page A/N for more answers for you.)

But as for right now, I have to tell people about how I don't own Yu Gi Oh...

God, that sucked.

Now I'm sad again...

Alright-y people, this is the pivotal chapter!

Read Review!

If you dare...

O.o o.O

* * *

One little girl sat alone in the confines of such a neglected room...

Kept alone, no one talked to her, no one cared.

Always alone...

And she sat, drawing pictures, on the cold steel floor,

Waiting for something...

Nobody knows quite what she waits for...

A beautiful picture of a smiling family.

Lost in a sea of floating black tears,

Your memory lives on

Passed in silence through the years

A dying song...

She smiled demurely at her work, haunted eyes falling over the blank silhouettes of the mother and father...

We didn't live so you may die,

We haven't ceased so you may cry

Passed in silence through the years,

Your memory lives on...

The mobile i.v. rattled on its rusty hook above her as her arm stretched out, grabbing for more color...

Oh, didn't they see that the world was too bland?

Even now, even now that she knew all about it and still...

She wanted their lives to be filled with color...

Darkness took the two away...

Not a chance, not a chance

Not a chance in the darkness...

The sea as well, a beautiful sea; one with which no oil carts sailed, or the broken remains of small ships lay cracked upon the returning waves...

And she knew...

Burned away, baked remains

Floating on, floating on

It had been three months since she had been diagnosed with a malignant cancer;

It really wasn't a surprise...

The nurses did nothing, the workers in the orphanage did nothing...

Just left her alone.

She was going to die anyway, right?

Everyone does, what's it matter when?

And what does it matter if she is...

Alone?

Darkness took the two away

With nothing left behind

Scarce one small gift they had saved

To release in good time...

She sighed and neglected her coloring for a moment, making her way to the shabby mattress where she kept her last few treasured belongings.

Clutching the letter to her chest, she quickly made her way back to her spot on the floor.

A memory of your mother,

Who's loving power shone

In memory of your father,

Who's strength had rivaled stone...

She opened again the frail package, which only held a letter and a small card...

Her favorite card.

She had loved it since she was very small...

In memory of all the things

You're lucky that you had...

To help you through the bad times when

You can't help but feel sad...

It was the perfect card, symbolic in every measurement, in infinite measurements... she couldn't explain...

Her father had been a games enthusiast, and a few months before he had died, he had discovered a fairly new game called duel monsters...

Instantly falling in love with the game, he did his best to teach his young daughter. But she had cared nothing for the actual game, she just loved the cards... and one card in particular...

In the darkness of the night,

While death and darkness creep...

A soldier to bring back the light

And watch you while you sleep...

The giant soldier, her favorite, the perfect combination of her mother and her father...

Quiet strength and unrelenting power, always protecting...

Perfect.

And when the world surrounds you with

Its pettiness and fears

Remember when we tell you this,

The strength you need is here

A searing pain began throbbing in her arm, writhing and tearing at her already weary body.

Eyes that could no longer see from the pain flashed violently,

closed and opened...

Hurricane flashes, lashing her face.

It took a while to regain control, and she held her breath waiting.

Finally, when she found the strength to stand again, she made her way shakily to the only, meagerly stuffed chair at the window in a dizzy stupor, accidentally falling and hitting her head. Taking no notice of the trickling blood, she sat weakly, head spinning.

The attacks were getting worse...

The world is falling in on itself,

This isn't a game

It's something we're playing, but it isn't the same.

The world is spinning, out of control...

How long will you last

Until you, too, let go?

She stared heavily at the card, as if granting it to move in some way... but of course it didn't. Nothing moved anymore, the world was dead.

Sighing as she looked out the window, another wave of electric fever flew over her. Her head throbbed, and it was only getting worse...

She breathed in again, taking deep breaths, and watched the few waning rays of the afternoon sun try to escape the entrapment of the darkening sky...

Night falls over the slumbering town

Midnight moonlight, tumbling down

And evening whispers call your name

With memories again...

She sighed and looked down at the card and small package below her. Even in their last moments, even as the incredible tanker moved forebodingly and unstoppably towards them, her mother and father had taken enough time out of saving themselves to hide this card, and write this letter. All for her, always for her...

And even now as she read the letter, she smiled, knowing that when her parents had died, they had died loving her.

They were the only ones who ever did.

And slowly, as the strengthening convulsions tightened the airways in her chest, and devoided her body of all air, she smiled, and folded the letter one last time.

Sitting back as the blood slowly trickled its way through her eyes, she laughed,

And she died loving them too.

Darkness took the two away

Only one, beautiful song

Remember the light that they showed you each day

In their hearts, you remember

Live on live on...

Only one left in heaven,

Live on, live on

They found her a few hours later, still sitting, still smiling, as the last brilliant rays of the sunset illuminated behind her,

And a small, sturdy card clasped to her chest.

In all you do,

They wait for you

To meet at the gates of heaven...

Together again, and never gone

And in your heart,

Live on.

* * *

A/N: SEE, Spirit Seer? 

**NEWSFLASH: _ACTUAL _STORY LINE!**

Yeah...

In case you hadn't noticed, I told you guys the first few chapters were gonna be kinda nixed as far as actual plot goes, they're just to adjust setting and backups...

And by conversing did you mean my author's notes?

I must admit to you, they_ are_ long, but I believe I made up for that with this chapter...

Right?

Cool.

And thank you, constructive criticizim is always appreciated! (I didn't count that as a flame! YAY!)

_**And to:**_

**medlii** You are so sweet! Yeah, I'm sorry the chapters are kinda short, but I couldn't really elaborate on that last part _too_ far without boring you all half to death, so... yeah. OH! And the shirt story is kind-of long, I'll try to leave it one of my reviews! I'm happy you like my story and that it turned out at least semi-realistic, that was what I was aiming for. Good enough to read it again? Man, I feel loved! Ha ha, awesomer iz a kuel wurd! You are mucho-awesomer every time you review! (Did that sound as dumb to you as it did to me? Gawd, it's not even LATE yet! Darn 9:00 Friday nights!) o.O I luvel uuu! You're the best!

**WARNING: THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY!**

**DO NOT ADJUST YOUR T.V.! **

__Ummmmmcomputerwhatever__

Next chapter: Secrets revealed, family...

**found**

Why didn't they take her in

Who are they

And how come no bodyever found out

Find out more, next time

READ AND **FREAKIN'** REVIEW****

(Gawd, I luv that word)

_-CYS._


	4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Well, hello again! This is CYS! And I'd just like to say, THANK YOU all for being so patient with me, I really appreciate it, and I'm sorry that it took me so darn long to update, but... sigh Well, let's just say a LOT has been happening, shall we? Grrr... ;; In any case, WHOOP-TIE-DEEE, I have a new boyfriend, isn't that great? He's like, the BEST guy in the whooooolllllleee world! HA HA HA! GRIIINNNSSS

Also, just in case any of you were wondering...

Exams went fine, AND,

I shall be trying to update ALL of my stories (probably starting with ''Green and Black Tears'') as soon as I possibly can. But as I said, a lot has been going on lately, so I'm not sure exactly WHEN that is going to happen...  
I'm working on it, though!

In any case, here is my new (and hopefully, FINAL) chapter of this story. I had lost the original storyline, but I believe that now, thinking back on it, it had actually seemed a bit... lacking. I don't know.

Oh well, I truly hope you enjoy this part of the story!

Forotten (of abandoned, maybe?) family will be revealed, and there MAY even be some other-worldy contact, but hey, what do I know, hmmm...?

Ha ha ha, well remember:

BROTHEREN: CYS does NOT own the Yu-Gi-Oh anime. If she did, Tea would be dead, Kiaba would have a kick-ass girlfriend and be king of the world, and Noah and Serenity would be sentanced to a life of pain and unbearable torture! BWUAHAHHAHAA!

...ahem...

Well now, aren't you glad I don't own this then? Ok, toodles!

Read, Review, and ENJOY, PPLS!

YAY!

* * *

One lone figure stood out against the darkening skyline of the heavily sloped hill, outlined as only a blank shadow on the pallet of the slowly extinguishing horizon...

Slowly, the diminutive casket swayed on its hooks as it lay waiting, solemnly, for the comforting pall of the freshly turned earth.

_Crrreeeaaakkkk, crrrreeeeaaakkkkk_... to and fro, she gazed up at him, haunted eyes boring into his side as he stood over the edge of the hill, waiting. Not once did he pretend not to recognize her presence, but she made it known anyway.

_'How could you have let this happen?' _The ascetic voice hummed accusingly.

Some waning sigh,  
Some bold escape of wind,  
A gentle grave's weeping, nothing more.

He chose to ignore it.

_'How could you stand there, as you are, so rich, so powerful, and yet, so weak?_

He would not falter..._  
So weak that you could not even find it in your heart, the decency to take in your own kinsmen?  
Too shrewd to begin loving again? To shelter your own sist- '_

"SHE IS NOT MY SISTER, WOMAN! She is no kinsman of mine!" He nearly screamed, turning on his heel all at once, fuming and spitting, like some unkept cat.

_'AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF KINSMEN?' She replied, also rising up in anger. The coffin wavered with her abrupt steps. 'You have no right to speak of things that you do not understand!'_

"Understand? And what WOULD you have me understand? Dear 'mother', sweet confidant protector? What have you ever done?"

_'I loved her."_

He shook his head with a frustrated sigh, turning away once more.

From this woman, who sought only to humiliate him one last time, who spoke so blindly of a love which she had never shared... he could not bear to look at her now.

"And what of me? Do you think I am some kind of fool? You say much about the cherishing of your kin, and yet speak nothing that reminds me of a time in which that same state of being cherished was imposed upon your own, forgotten sons."

_'Oh my boy, we loved you. You know that we must have, we had tried to save you, after all-"_

"And by confining us to a life of lies you **_saved_** us?" He turned again, slowly. "You think to little of us, and too highly of yourself, _mother_."

_'And you do not think at all."_ Another figure appeared from beneath the shelter of the bowing pine trees, to stand beside them on the darkening hillside. Gently he placed one effulgent hand upon the woman's shoulder, steading both her, and the gently rocking tomb on which she rested on.

The young man only looked away in discust. If he disliked the woman at all, it was this man that he hated, no, LOATED entirely. He was the beginning of all the lies, all the hatred, and every event that had followed them until now...

And he would not recieve the satisfaction of toying with him again.

_'Son,'_ He began, but was halted by the intense look of anger within the other man's eyes.

''I have given you what you want. I have made sure that she was done and burried, and see no reason for me to speak with you any longer.

"All I wish now," the all-too-familiar voice started again, "Is that you finally leave us be..."

A rustle of leaves from behind turned the heads of the three, as another figure emerged from the bushes. He paused.

"Who are you talking to, Seto?" The little boy asked, eyes searching for the inhabitants of the other two voices.

"No one, Mokuba, no one... Come on, let's go."

And as they departed, for what was hopefully not the last time, down the slowly sloping arch of the grand hill, two lone figures stood against the aligned headstones of their broken family, watching.

Only when the glaring headlights of the luxurious Kiaba Corp. limosuine faded into the bloody sunset did they falter...

'Come along, Marghritte, your hands are cold." The man whispered.

And they dissappeared, shimmering and wavering silver, into death's sleep for the night.

* * *

A/N: Ahhhh, how did you like it? Did it make sense? I mean, you guys got the connection, right?

Any questions you have will be answered in the final chapter, my Q & A section. So go ahead and ask now, 'cuz if you don't soon, you'll never get it.

Ok then, well, I really enjoyed writing this for all of you! And I'd really appreciate your imput!

As such, I have a question:

1) Should I make a prequel/ sequel, and

2) What would be best to describe, depending on what you chose?

Well alrighty-then! This is CYS, saying bye bye for now!  
I love you guys!

&C'YA REAL SOON!

BYE!


End file.
